New recycling bins created specially for the city of Montreal are up against a formidable foe this winter – the cold.

Montreal is testing new plastic bins that it hoped would encourage people to recycle more, but the city now has to deal with bins that break when the temperature drops below freezing.

The bins, which are taller and lighter than regular rectangular bins, will be examined at a laboratory to determine exactly why they break, said Magdalena Bober, a spokesperson for Côte-des-Neiges/Notre-Dame-de-Grâce, one of three boroughs testing the new bins in pilot projects.

But Bober said the borough’s blue-collar workers have reported that the bins crack when they get thrown onto the sidewalk after being emptied, that sometimes the lids break off, and that recyclable items inside the bins can get stuck inside.

“If it had gone well, we would have distributed those bins across the borough,” Bober said. “Unfortunately, there are some corrections that will have to be made.”

People in the Plateau Mont-Royal district have reported similar problems, although in Verdun, spokesperson Francine Morin said the bins are working out “very well.”

“We gave strict instructions (to the company that collects recycling) to not to throw the bins,” she said.

The city is extending the pilot project until the spring to continue testing the bins, Bober said. According to the city, 85 per cent of people surveyed who use the new bins are satisfied with them.

The bins were created by the Montreal company Claude Mauffette Design Industriel as a made-in-Montreal solution to increase recycling rates for people living in duplexes or triplexes, or in homes where the traditional small rectangular recycling bins or larger wheeled bins aren’t practical. Montreal has spent $400,000 on the bins so far.

The designer said this week that testing the bins gives the company a chance to see what changes need to be made to make them work better.

“The product is at the prototype stage, and obviously, there are things than can be improved,” Mauffette said, adding he had not heard of the temperature-related problems.

Mauffette said he has already decided to switch to a more cold-resistant kind of plastic for the bins, which can hold 20 litres more of recyclables than regular rectangular bins, can be carried with one hand, and have a lid on top to stop the wind from blowing recyclables around.

The bins were originally to be have been tested last winter, but that was delayed until July because of changes that needed to be made to the lid, bottom and handles of the bins. Montreal plans to eventually distribute 500,000 bins across the city.

mbeaudin@thegazette.canwest.com

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